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Show iiiiiJiiiiiji'iijfiTiiitiiiiJiiiiiiiiiiTfiifiifTfiiiiiiiiiiiriiiriEiitiiiiuiii iifiiiitifiiiiiirttiiiiiiiriiriiJiiiriiitiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiTiiiiii: Ramsey Milholland I By BOOTH TARKINGTON f p Copyright by Dcublsday. Page & Company 3 luniMlilllimtlllliiriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinmiiimiiiimmiimiiir, myself, yesterd'y afternoon, and you get buck In line or I won't let you b'loug to It at all !" The pretender succumbed ; he Instantly In-stantly dismounted, being out-shouted and overawed. On foot he took his place in ttie ranks, while Ramsey became be-came sternly vociferous. "In tention, company I Uurwud march ! Col-lumn right! Rlght-showdler harms ! Halt! Fnr-wiid march. Carry harms " The army went trudging away under un-der the continuous but unheeded fl.-e of orders, and presently disappeared round a corner, leaving the veteran chuckling feebly under his v. nlnut tree and alone with the empty street. All trace of what he hail said seemed to have been wiped from the grandson's mind ; but memory has curious ways. Kamsey hud understood not a fifth nor a tenth of his grandfather's talk, and already he had "forgotten" all of It-yet It-yet not only were there many, man times In the boy's later life when, without ascertainable cause, he would remember words nnd sentences spoken by the grandfather, though the listener, lis-tener, half -drowsily, had heurn but the sound of an old, enrnest voice and even the veteran's meaning finally took on n greater definiteness till it became, In the grandson's thoughts, something clear and bright and beautl ful (hat he knew without being just sure where or how he had learned If CHAPTER II Ramsey Milholland sat miserably Id school, his conscious being consisting principally 'of a dull hate. Torpor was a little dispersed during a fifteen-minute fifteen-minute Interval of "Music," when he and all the other pupils in the large Qcrzrr r THE BOY, FATHER OF THE MAN. Here anothfr of (hose Booth Ts.'kuiiftoti l)'iy-aiil-Blrl stones (hit Kftt everyone InuKhlnft nl IIkIiik over aKaln the dnyit of youth. ThU one M muoh ilk.- "Penroo ' ,ir,.l "Seventeen" and "The Oriole." f liferent, too. In that It i-n.rrl.in It.n.i.-v Milhollanrl ari'l DoM 2o-ci 2o-ci In iSrnili'Jl M liool and rolletfe Uff i,, early tosturlty in the World Wm 00 I'"h serious an well as funny, and It's one of Uooth Tar-Mltfton't Tar-Mltfton't heat of Us kind. That's snough. Is . 50 CHAPTER I. Vhen tohiinle comes marchlnff home Rfxaln, Hurrah! Hurrah! We'll nive him a hearty welcome then, Hurrah! Hurrah! The men with cheers, the boys with shouts, The lad es tney will all turn out. Ami we'll all feel gay, when Johnnie ( omes marching home again! 'fhe old men nnd t lie Utile boy, Ills gnuii'suii. silt together In t lie .shade of the big w-ii I ul tree In the front yard, watching the "Decoration Day I'a-Pfttle," I'a-Pfttle," HS It passed up the long street; iinil when the last of the veterans wins mil ni si go I the grandfather murmured mur-mured the words of the tune that cume drifting hack from the now distant baud hi the head of the procession. "Did you, Grandpa?" the boy usked. "Did I what?" "Kill you all feel guy when the urmy got home?" "I i didn't get home all at once, precisely," pre-cisely," the grandfather esplnined. "Wltpn Hip war was over I suppose we fell relieved, more than anything else." "You didn't feel so gay when the the grandfather, "They won a good many battles." "I mean, you said you never got seared they'd win the war." "No, we were never afraid of that." "Well, but If they were good men and fought like wildcats, Grandpa, and kep' winning battles and everything, every-thing, how could that be? How could you help heln' scared they'd win the war?" The grandfather's feeble eyes twinkled twin-kled brightly. "Why, we knew they couldn't, Uamsey." At this, the little vertical shadows mi Ramsey's forehead became more pronounced, for he bad succeeded In thinking, "Well, they didn't know they couldn't, did they?" he argued. "They I bought they were goln' to win, didn't they?" "Yes ; I guess they did. But you see they were wrong." "Well, hut " Ramsey struggled. "Listen ! Listen here, Orandpa '. Well, anyway, If they never got scared we'd win, and nobody got scared they'd win well, I don't see " "You don't see what?" IHit Ramsey found himself unable to continue his concentration. "Oh, nothlrj.' much," he murmured. "I see." And his grandfather laughed again. "You mean : If the Johnnies felt Just as sure of winning the war as we did and kept winning battles, why shouldn't we ever have had any doubts we were going to win? That's it, Isn't it?" "I guess so, Grandpa." "Well, I think It was mostly because we were certain that we were right." "I see," said Uamsey. "The Johnnies knew they were on the side of the far whs, though, I guess!" the boy miturod. "I guess we didn't." "Were you scared, Grandpa? Were you ever scared the Johnnies would win?"" "No. We weren't ever afrnld of Unit." "Well, weren't you ever scared yourself. your-self. Orsndpa? I mean when you were In a bntlle." "Oh, yes ; I was." The old man laughed. "Scared aplenty I" "I don't see why," the boy said promptly. "I wouldn't be scared In a Imltle." "Wouldn't you?" " 'Course not ! Orandpa, why don't yon inarch In the Decoration Day parade? pa-rade? Wouldn't they let you?" "I'm not able to march any more. Too Short of breath and too slinky In the legs and too blind." "I wouldn't care," said the boy. "I'd be in the parade anyway, If I was you. If si tl been In your place, Orandpa, and they'd lot me be tn that parade, I'd been rlgM up by the band. Look, Urandjw ! Watch me, Grandpa ! This Is the way I'd be, Orandpa." He rose from the garden bench where they sat, and gave a complex Imitation of what had most appealed to htm as the grandeurs of the pro-" pro-" cession, his prancing legs simulating those of the horse of the grand marshal, mar-shal, while his upper parts rendered the drums and bugles of the band, as well as the officers nnd privates of the militia company which had been a feature fea-ture of thc parade. The only thing lie left out was the detachment of veterans. "Putty-boom I Putty-boom! Putty-joom-boom-boom I" he vociferated, as the drums and then as the bugles: "Th, la, ra, tain !" He addressed his restive legs: "Whoa, there, you Whiteyl Gee! Haw! Git up!" Then, waving an Imaginary sword : "Col-liinin "Col-liinin right I Farwud march I Halt ! Carry harms!" He "carried arms." "Show-dKr harms!" He "shouldered arms," and returned to his seat. "That'd be me, Grandpa. That's the wh.v I'd do." And as the grandfather nodded, seeming to agree, a thought recently dismissed returned to the Ind of the composite procession and ., asked : room of the "Five B. Grade" sang repeatedly re-peatedly fractions of what they enunciated enun-ciated us "The Star Span-guh-hulled Banner" ; but afterward he relapsec into the low spirits and animosity nat ural to anybody during enforced con finement under Instruction. No alleviation allevia-tion was accomplished by an lnvader'3 temporary usurpation of the teacher's platform, a brisk and unsympathetlcal-ly unsympathetlcal-ly cheerful young woman mounting thereon to "teach German." For a long time mnthematlcs nnd German had been about equally repulsive re-pulsive to Ramsey, who found himself dally in the compulsory presence of both ; but he was gradually coming to regard German with the greater horror, hor-ror, because, after months of pntient mental resistance, he at last began to comprehend that the German language has sixteen special and particular ways of using the German article corresponding corre-sponding to that flexible bit of a word so easily managed In English the. What in the world was the use of having sixteen ways of doing a thing that could just as well be done in oni? If the Germans had contented them selves with insisting upon sixteen useless use-less variations for Infrequent words, such as hippopotamus, for instance, Uamsey might have thought the affair unreasonable but not necessarily vicious vi-cious it would be easy enough to avoid talking about a hippopotamus; if he ever had to go to Germany. But the fact that the Germans picked out a and the and many other little words In use all the time, and gave every one of them sixteen forms, and expected Ramsey Milholland to learn this dizzying dizzy-ing uselessness down to the last crotchety detail, with "When to employ Which" as a nausea to prepare for the final convulsion when one didn't use Which, because It was an "Exception" there was a fashion of rvaklng easy matters hard that was me-ely hellish. The teacher was strict but enthu siastic ; she told the children, over and over, that the German was a beautiful language, and her face always had a glow when she said this. At su-.h times the children looked patient ; they supposed it must be so, bca'se she was an adult and their teacher; and they believed her with the same ..ian-ner ..ian-ner r.f believing which those of them who went to Sunday school used there when the Sunday school teachers were pushed into explanation of various matters set forth In the O'd Testament, Testa-ment, or gave reckless descriptions ot heaven. That is to say, the children did not challenge or deny; already they had been driven into habits ol resignation and were passing out ot the age when childhood Is aide to r Ject adult nonsense. Ramsey Milholland did r.n- know whether the English language was beautiful or not : he never though about it. Moreover, though his deepei inwards hated "German." he liked his German teacher, nnd it was pleasant to look at her when thnt glow camf upon her face. " You bet your life I hate her. Teicher's Pet,' that's what I call her." (TO BE CONTINUED.) "I Wouldn't Care," Said the Boy. "I'd Be in the Parade Anyway, If I Was You." devil." But at this, the grandfather's Inugh was louder than It had been before, be-fore, and Ramsey looked hurt. "Well, you can laugh If you want to I" he objected In an nggrieved voice. "Anyway, "Any-way, the Sunday school sup'lntendenr told us when people knew they were on the devil's side they always " "T dare say, I dare say," the old man Interrupted, a little Impatiently. "But In this world mighty few people think they're on the devil's side, Ramsey. The South thought the devil was on our side, you ree." "Well, that kind o' mixes It all up more'n ever." "Suppose you look at It this way: The South was fighting for what It believed to be its right to he a country coun-try by itself; but we were fighting for 'Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and Inseparable.' There's the reason rea-son we had the certain knowledge that we were going to win the war. How plain and simple it is !" "Well, why weren't you ever afraid the Johnnies would whip the Unions, Grandpa ?" "Oh, we knew they couldn't." "I guess so." The little boy laughed disdainfully, thinking his question satisfactorily sat-isfactorily answered. "I guess those ole Johnnies couldn't whipped a flea! They didn't know how to fight any at till, did they. Grandpa?" "Oil, yes. they did !" "What?' The boy was astounded. "Weren't they all just reg'Iar ole cowards. cow-ards. Grandpa?" "No." said the grandfather. "They were pretty fine soldiers." "They were? Well, they ran away whei.ever you began shootln1 at 'em, didn't tliey?" ' Sometime they did, but most times they didn't. Sometimes they fought like wildcat and sometimes we were the ones t!-!.'. run away." "But the Johnnies wer had men, weren't the). Grandpa?" "No." The boy's forehead, customarily vacant, va-cant, showe 1 some little vertical shadows, produced by a stitiggle to IhUik. "Well, but ' be began slowly. "l.irten, Grandpa, llb'en here! You sald-you said you nw got scared die ote Johnnies were goln' to win." "They did win pretty often," said Ramsey didn't think so. He had begun be-gun to feel bored by the conversation, and to undergo the oppression he usually us-ually suffered in school. The earnest old voice of the veteran was only a sound in the boy's ears. "Boom " The veterans had begv.n to fire their cannon on the crest of the low bill, out at the cemetery; and from a little way down the street came the rat-a-tat of a toy drum and sounds of n fife played execrably. A file of children chil-dren in cocked hats made of newspapers newspa-pers came marching Importantly up the sidewalk under the maple shade trees; and in advance, upon a velocipede, veloci-pede, rode a tin-swon'ed personage, shrieking incessant commands but not concerning himself with whether or not any military obedience was thereby there-by obtained. Here was a revivifying effect ojaon young Ramsey; his sluggard slug-gard eyelids opened electrically; he leaded to his feet and, abandoning his grandfather without preface or apology, apolo-gy, sped across the lawn and out of the gate, charging headlong upon the commander of the company. "You get off that 'loctpede, Wesley-Bender Wesley-Bender !' he bellowed. "You gimme that sword ! What rights you got to go beta' captain o' my army, I'd like to know! Who got up this army, in the first place, I'd He to know! I did, |